


On Your Honor

by ParacausalJengram



Series: The Bird and The Bolt [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Backstory Building, Coup de Grace Mission Spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Game: Destiny 2: Season of the Hunt, Just a dusting at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29517828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParacausalJengram/pseuds/ParacausalJengram
Summary: With the High Celebrant in their sights, Asteryn worries what will become of Crow when the mission is over. But a promise from the Spider could change everything--if they both survive the hunt.---Relationship-forming between my Awoken Hunter, Asteryn, and the softest boy, Crow. Based on/rewrite of the Coup de Grace mission.
Relationships: Female Guardian/Crow, Female Guardian/The Crow, Female Guardian/Uldren Sov
Series: The Bird and The Bolt [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2162769
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	On Your Honor

**Author's Note:**

> Some dialogue taken directly from the Coup de Grace mission and cutscenes, because man, that dialogue is so good and so feels-y. Additional notes at the end.
> 
> Original Characters: Asteryn, Awoken Hunter, and her Ghost, Sheyd

“My pet stands at your shoulder, like an equal.”

_Because he is._

Asteryn knew she couldn’t voice that. It would put the mission at risk--put Glint at risk. But she despised the way the Spider spoke of Crow, like a pet kept on a leash. And she was terrified, as much as she was elated, to be drawing to the end of their hunts. The High Celebrant was within reach, Crow said, tracked to the Dreaming City with her and Osiris’ help. They were going to cut off Xivu Arath’s ability to corrupt, at least for now. 

But when the hunts ended, what would become of Crow?

The baron was still speaking, unfortunately. But what he was saying now caught her full attention. “Reclaim the Shore for me,” the Spider wheezed, “and you can claim any prize in my lair as your reward.”

The moment she processed what the odious Eliksni had said, she felt her pulse start to race. The Spider had no idea what he was offering her, but she did. It took every ounce of her composure to keep the hope, the surety that her budding plan would work, off her face. Asteryn would let nothing steal this chance from her. 

“Anything?” She echoed, feigning disinterest, looking around with a muted expression as though assessing the possibilities.

He nodded, chuckling. “You’ll have earned it.” 

He thought he was offering her mere items--and yes, some of his items were true wonders, priceless in their rarity and power. But not a single thing in that den interested her in the least. 

But a matched set of a Guardian and his Ghost? She had her heart set on that. 

… 

Crow and Asteryn made an easy team. After weeks of Wrathborn hunts, they were comfortable with each other, knew how the other would react to a threat or a surprise in the form of a darkly chanting corrupted Eliksni. Perhaps it would be like that with all Lightbearers, but Crow doubted it--sometimes, it felt like she could read his mind, or he hers. There was no one he would rather have traversing the coin of the Dreaming City with him, hunting for the High Celebrant.

At the same time, he made sure he always took the riskier path. He dove into the swirling darkness to study the High Celebrant’s movements before she even landed in the Dreaming City. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Asteryn could handle herself; he knew with certainty she could. But they needed to kill the High Celebrant in the Ascendant Plane, which meant there was a real possibility one of them could end up trapped beyond where the Light could reach. Osiris had warned him of that in clear, brutal terms, telling him what end had met his own Ghost, Sagira.

He would not let that be her. 

“Keep your eyes on it, Crow!” She called over comms, explosions echoing in the background. “We won’t let it get away, I promise.”

“We won’t,” he agreed. “And I can do more than just watch.”

In the Dreaming City, she planted the lure into the cryptolith. In the Ascendant Realm, he tagged the High Celebrant. It fled, spewing a dark trail of energy, seeking the safety on the other side of the coin, where it could be killed and rise again easily. It didn’t know his Guardian waited there.

“It’s headed back to you!” He called, and he could almost see her grin when he closed his eyes.

When next the High Celebrant fled, back into the Ascendant Realm, her Ghost’s voice announced, “It’s running again. But it’s left something behind.” 

The blood trail. Energy for her to destroy, to tighten the cage, just as he’d planned. She ran from one plane to the next easily, listening to his calls and responding in turn. They kept to their planes, switching when needed, making sure the High Celebrant had nowhere to run. When she chased it into fleeing, they followed the bleeding trail once again.

Things went smoother than he dared hope. Asteryn’s elegance with a bow was breathtaking, and his tracking was nothing to sneer at, either. She followed every path he created for her unquestioningly--she trusted him, fully. He almost wanted to laugh with how light that realization made him feel. 

But then the trail went cold. She couldn’t get through, and he couldn’t get out.

...

“We’re trapped in here?” 

The question wasn’t for her, but it made her feel like her body had been plunged into ice water. There was no way Asteryn would accept that, not when she was so close to making sure Crow was never trapped again.

“If they are trapped in the Ascendant Plane with the Celebrant…” Osiris began, but she cut him off. 

“I refuse to listen to the end of that sentence.” There was steel in her voice. Perhaps it was naivete, perhaps it was stubbornness. But she was finding a way through even if she had to tear a hole into reality with her own Light.

Luckily, Sheyd had more presence of mind than she did. “The lure, star-eyes!” He cried. “There may be enough Hive magic left in it to do something!”

Asteryn didn’t hesitate. She shoved the lure into the ground with a silent prayer to the Traveler. If time hadn’t been of the essence, she may have collapsed with relief when a hazy green trail appeared. It led into the air, and she didn’t stop to think before she jumped. Crow’s path hadn’t led her astray yet.

As she leapt from otherworldly platform to platform, Crow’s voice came over comms, soft and thoughtful. “I hope you can hear this…” He said, explaining how the Celebrant was now after them. “If things get ugly, know it’s not your fault.” 

Tears pricked at her eyes. She refused to shed them. There would be no need for them.

“Everything I did, I did because I wanted to.”

And there would be more for him to do. She wanted to yell at him to stop talking like this, like he had already accepted a fate that was not yet set in stone, but she knew her words couldn’t reach him.

“Thank you. For letting me have a choice.” 

He would have so many more choices to make.

Asteryn tore through the swirling darkness of the portal, tumbling into the Ascendant Plane and running. In the distance, she saw light, and she wasted no time heading towards it. “Crow!” She shouted it, breathless, as though her voice could travel across the entire Plane. “Do you hear us? We made it through!”

…

She wouldn’t give up on him. The realization washed over Crow like sunlight when he heard her voice. “Nothing in here I can’t handle,” he replied, a smile in his voice.

Glint, of course, would not let him have even a moment of dignity. “The Celebrant broke your legs and threw you into an abyss!” His Ghost likely couldn’t see him clearly in the dark, but the glare Crow shot his way could have shorted circuits. 

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he reiterated, with force. “The Celebrant’s ahead. I have a plan, star-eyes.”

“Knew you would,” came the reply, sure and sweet. 

Crow smiled, and ran.

…

The Harbinger’s Seclude was suffused with light, and there the High Celebrant waited.

“For Sagira,” Sheyd whispered. Asteryn drew her bow.

In the midst of the fight, Crow’s voice came through. “Keeping it busy? I’m almost at the portal you came in through.” 

Asteryn was too focused to reply, twirling out of harm’s way only to leap into the air, swing up her bow, and fire a volley of arrows. Sheyd responded for her. “Are you leaving us?”

“The Celebrant must die in the Ascendant Plane. Asteryn’s our best shot at making that happen.” He laughed, softly. “And like I said. I have a plan.”

She trusted him. She kept fighting.

The Celebrant was weak, desperate. It summoned its energy, preparing to create a portal to run through, but something was stopping it, something unexpected. Asteryn felt a grin break out on her face. “What are you doing over there, Crow?” She asked, wonderingly.

“Blocking the exit. You’re smoking it out. If it’s trapped in there, it burns.” His words were like drops of light, shot through with well-won pride. “I’ve survived by watching and learning from my Light. I know how that thing creates portals. This time, I’m ready.”

The High Celebrant tried to run. Crow didn’t let it, as she knew he wouldn’t. He’d promised, after all.

Asteryn summoned her Light, shining incandescent with Arc energy, and fell upon the High Celebrant like a crackling tornado, spinning and erupting with unavoidable, undeniable power. In the face of her Light and his plans, it crumbled, lifeless. It was over.

As the dust settled, the comms sparked to life. “How did you manage that?” Osiris asked. If she didn’t know him so well after weeks of collaboration, she’d mistake his tone for awe.

“Crow destroyed the portal. It had nowhere to go.” There was pride in her voice, too. “I knew you wouldn’t leave us,” she added softly. 

Crow’s reply came over comms immediately. There was a laugh trapped in his words. “No, never.”

But his next words snuffed the budding warmth from her chest. The finality with which he told her it had been an honor over comms, before shutting them off and returning to the Spider, made her heart ache. But once Asteryn returned with the head of the High Celebrant, she would get to claim her reward. 

Crow thought this was an ending, but he was wrong. This was a beginning.

…

At some point as they pursued the High Celebrant, Crow had started thinking of Asteryn as _his_ Guardian. As she walked into Spider’s lair, Sheyd at her shoulder, he felt his chest constrict. _His_ Guardian stood in the entryway, and tossed the High Celebrant’s head before his repulsive master. _His_ Guardian met Spider’s eyes, gaze hard and even. _His_ Guardian gave a cold smile, so unlike the ones she snuck his way when she thought he wasn’t looking, even though he was almost always looking.

“It’s done,” she announced.

Ignorant of his thoughts, the Spider laughed. “So it is. As promised, you can have a prized bauble from lair as compensation for your… heroics.” 

He hadn’t known that offer had been made. He turned the words over in his head, and had to bite back a gasp. Had she realized the same thing he just did?

When he raised his eyes, Asteryn was staring into them, triumphant. She had.

She flicked her gaze back to the Spider, then pointed directly at the insignia on Crow’s own chest. “I want him,” she said firmly. Her tone allowed no room for argument. It was so unlike her normal voice, warm and teasing, that he would have laughed had his throat not been so tight. 

His master laughed instead. “Cute. Real funny,” he drawled.

“You said anything in the room.” Crow had never seen her eyes blaze like that, never seen her face so defiant. 

Spider’s enforcers around the room moved, drawing weapons. Asteryn didn’t so much as spare them a glance. Her eyes were locked with the Spider’s, and her steady hand remained pointing at him. She didn’t even bother to summon a weapon.

The Spider was many things. A person who went back on his word, however, was not one of them. Crow could tell he was furious that he had been outplayed, but the Eliksni gestured and his enforcers stood down. “Fine. You can have my little bird.” It felt like he was watching the scene unfold from above as he heard the Spider accept her demand. His pulse was so loud, he almost couldn’t hear the Spider telling him to fly away.

But he saw Asteryn hold out a hand to him. She kept her face fierce, but her bright eyes were for him alone. 

He took her hand, and let her pull him towards freedom.

…

She took him to the EDZ, landing off the beaten path, near the shipping container Glint called his nest. Spider’s men had removed the bomb from Glint under her and Sheyd’s supervision, her eyes hard as steel. He had barely spoken since leaving the Tangled Shore, and she hadn’t pried. Adjusting to a new life was a heavy thing. But Crow caught her hands as she turned to go, holding her in place.

“Why would you do this for us?” He asked, eyes bright, voice low.

She met his gaze. “You know the answer already.” 

That soft smile of his broke through. “I’m not sure I do. Tell me anyway?”

She took a breath, paused. There wasn’t just one reason. There were so many reasons. Most of them were things Asteryn wasn’t yet ready to say, but there were plenty she could share. 

“Because Glint makes me laugh,” she offered, drawing a pulse of pleased pink light from the little Ghost. 

“And?” Crow prompted. His smile was taking on a playful edge.

“Because I’m tired of being the most clueless Guardian at the Tower.” 

“And?”

“Because I can’t drop a bomb on Spider’s Den if you’re in it?”

He laughed outright, but still wasn’t satisfied. “ _And_?”

“Because,” she breathed, “You’re a Guardian, and my friend, and you deserve to soar free.”

The heat in his eyes told her that he still wasn’t truly satisfied with that answer--that he knew as well as she did that she was leaving something unsaid. But his smile was warm, too, with a trace of wickedness, as he tugged her hands and caused her to stumble into his arms. Crow held her tightly and pressed a kiss onto the top of her head, resting his chin there after. One hand cupped her head while his other arm wrapped around her waist. She wove her arms around him in return, leaning into his warmth. 

There were plans to be made--Crow still had to wrap up his affairs on the Shore, and he had mentioned something he had to look into before he would go to the City, something about dreams that he wanted her help with. Osiris said he’d bring him to the City under his protection, when he was ready. But for the moment, they simply held each other close, their Ghosts talking quietly nearby. Crow was free, and Asteryn silently thanked the Traveler for sending Sheyd to raise her so she could save him.

* * *

**End Notes:** As this is based on how I actually played through the game, I tweaked the timeline a BIT for logic's sake. Reforging Hawkmoon takes place after this mission, basically. And I couldn't stand the idea of just leaving him in Spider's Den, so he's now based out of his ridiculous little shipping crate in the EDZ, ha. Shoutout to [Esoterickk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKNKC5r8zJA) on YouTube for the Coup de Grace mission playthrough I referenced for the dialogue! I promise some proper fluff is up next, and eventually I'll let them kiss. :P


End file.
